Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad
Badawi and his wife Jeanne Abdullah walk out after casting their votes at
a school in Kepala Batas, in Malaysia's northern state of Penang March 8,
2008.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo)Photo
Gallery>>>

KUALA LUMPUR, March 9 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia's ruling coalition Barisan Nasional (BN), or National Front, won the 12th general election here, according to preliminary statistics on Sunday.

Election Commission (EC) chairman Rahid announced early Sunday at a press conference that at 01:30 a.m. early Sunday, the BN has won 127 seats, exceeding a simple majority in the country's 222-seat lower house of the Parliament, to form a new government.

Rahid did not disclose how many seats that the opposition parties seized at that time.

The Election Commission also said that the BN has won a simple majority in the state legislative assemblies like Johor, Malacca, Perlis, Terrenggaru, Pahang, Sembilan to form the state governments there.

However, three BN component party leaders failed in Saturday's general election and failed to secure a seat at the lower house of the Parliament, including Malaysian Indian Congress President Samy Vellu, and People's Movement Party Acting President Koh Tsu Koon.

The Islamic Party of Malaysia (PAS) reportedly has won a simple majority in the state of Kelantan to continue to control the state' s government.

The voting at three locations in East Malaysia's Sarawak State will be postponed to Sunday after a boat ferrying election officials and ballot boxes capsized there on Saturday.

A woman casts her ballot at a polling
center in Kuala Lumpur, March 8, 2008.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo)Photo Gallery>>>

According to the results of 219 seats of the 222-seat lower house of the 12th Parliament announced by the EC so for, the BN has only secured 137 seats, including eight won uncontested, far less than the two-thirds majority line of 148 seats.

In the 11th Parliament which was dissolved on Feb. 13, the BN held 199 of the 219 seats in the lower house.

During the Saturday election, the BN also failed to take back the state of Kelantan from the opposition party -- the Islamic Party of Malaysia (PAS), and even more it lost four other states --Penang, Kedah, Selangor and Perak.

According to the results revealed by the EC, the opposition parties, mainly including the Democratic Action Party (DAP), the PAS and the People's Justice Party (PKR), have won a simple majority in the state assemblies in the states.

In the last general election, in the total of 13 states in the country, the BN, which also consisted of 14 parties, held dominant seats in the legislative assemblies in 12 ones, excluding Kelantan.

Some leaders or ministers of component parties of the BN also suffered during the election, got lost their parliamentary seats, including Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) President Samy Vellu, Acting President Koh Tsu Koon of the People's Movement Party, and the incumbent Malaysian Women, Family and Social Development Minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil.

Many of the first time contestants from the BN also "sank" in the election scenario this year, which was described by some local media as "a political tsunami" or "unprecedented".

Badawi and Najib won their parliamentary seats respectively with a significant margin in their own constituencies.

KUALA LUMPUR, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia's ruling
coalition Barisan Nasional (BN), or National Front, has obtained 84 of the total
222 parliamentary seats in the 12th general election on Saturday, according to
the initial results.

In the results of 109 seats unveiled at 00:30 a.m. on
Sunday by election officials on Malaysia's National Broadcasting and Television
RTM1, the candidates from the opposition parties secured 25 parliamentary
seats.Full story